University of Minnesota Occupation

The Social Sciences Tower at the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota was occupied yesterday. Occupiers apparently stayed in the building throughout the night even though it was supposed to be closed down at 11 pm. They have a blog and their twitter feed is @umnsolidarity. As of this morning, they have released a list of demands:

Because we are residents of Minnesota, and because this is a public, land-grant university,

We demand the right to peacefully occupy space at our university,

We demand that the general public has reasonable access to university resources;

We demand that the university respect the rights of all workers to organize and to earn at least a living wage;

We demand tuition and fee reductions;

We demand that regents be democratically elected by the university community;

We demand that the university treat student groups fairly and equitably with respect to funding and space. We demand student groups on the 2nd floor of Coffman Union be able to keep their spaces.

In doing so, we stand in solidarity with the people of Wisconsin, and students and workers worldwide.